If the character's POW does not exceed the d10 die roll, he dies. The referee has some leeway in modifying the deity's "fee" of POW; if the D.I. was gratuitous, or in pursuit of something contrary to the deity's nature (i.e. requesting a resurrection from Humakt the Death God), the character may be punished with a limiting vow, or lose divine magic until he atones somehow. By the same token, when making D.I. requests in pursuit of goals in accord with the deity's nature (asking Yelm the Sun God to boost a spell to dispel a great magical darkness), the character may be additionally rewarded with spells or powers from the deity in question.

What happens to the POW that the deity takes? It is nowhere officially explained, so I figure the deity redistributes power gained from D.I. transactions back to his cultists at High Holy Day ceremonies, where all attending cultists can gain 1 point of POW.

In early versions of RuneQuest, Divine Intervention worked differently; a character of Priest or Rune Lord status could sacrifice a point of POW to gain a 10% chance of Divine Intervention. In this respect it fit better in the Divine Magic system, where POW is sacrificed to gain a use of a given Divine spell. POW sacrifice could be stacked, such that sacrifice of 10 POW meant pretty-much-automatic success when the D.I. was invoked. Again, requesting intervention in a manner contrary to the deity's nature would severely modify the chance of success; at best the offending character would simply lose that "charge" of Divine Intervention.